Adams County survey goes online

August 20, 2008

Edward Husar

Adams County residents can now express how they feel about the development of a comprehensive plan and possible zoning regulations.

An online survey is available through the JEO Consulting Group’s Web site (www.jeoprojects.com). The survey was posted last week and will remain available until midnight Sept. 8.

Hard copies of the survey — for people without access to the Internet — are available in the Adams County Clerk’s office at the Courthouse in Quincy. County Clerk/Recorder Georgia Volm said any surveys picked up at her office must be returned to the same location by 4:30 p.m. Sept. 8. The surveys will then be mailed to JEO’s headquarters in Wahoo, Neb., for tabulation.

The results will be reported at the Adams County Board’s Comprehensive Planning Committee’s next meeting Sept. 23. The time and location will be announced.

JEO was hired by the County Board to oversee the development of a comprehensive plan. The company is attempting to find out how residents feel about certain issues, and the survey will play a key role, according to Keith Marvin, project manager.

“We want to get an idea of what some of the things are that are important to people in the county,” he said.

During a series of public meetings last month, Marvin said, JEO officials heard some residents say they were “never asked” if they wanted to see planning and zoning launched in the county.

“So we’ve asked,” he said. “We’ve got a whole page dedicated to issues in the comprehensive plan and zoning.”

The page he’s referring to asks participants to rate how strongly they agree, or disagree, with such statements as:

• “I think that the adoption/ implementation of the Comprehensive Plan will protect the value of my property.”

• “I think that the adoption/ implementation of the Comprehensive Plan will invade my personal property rights.”

• “I support county-wide zoning in Adams County.”

• “I support zoning only in specific areas of Adams County.”

Participants also can rate public services and the quality of life in Adams County; the importance of preserving agricultural land, the environment, historic buildings and public parks; and the importance of designating land for specific uses, such as an ethanol plant.

Participants will be asked to provide some anonymous demographic information “to see where some of these responses are coming from,” Marvin said.

JEO officials debated how to conduct the survey in a fair, open manner but without letting people “stuff the ballot box” with responses either favorable or unfavorable to zoning.

In the end, they opted to ask people filling out surveys online “to limit their responses to just the number of people in their household.” This approach was taken because JEO officials kept hearing how “a husband and wife might disagree on their opinions on this,” Marvin said. “So we need to have it so they can both reply” using the same Internet connection.

The alternative, he said, was to limit the survey to one response per household. “But we felt it was important to put it out there and trust them on it,” Marvin said.

Marvin said he’s eager to see what Adams County residents have to say in the survey.

“Whether they like the process or not, it’s important for us to find out what’s important to them in the county,” he said.